The Activation Function
In order to determine whether life can arise spontaneously or not, a brief review of what we
know suggests what I call an activation function.!
Miller Urey Chemistry!
Under Nobel prize winner in chemistry (1934) Harold Urey, Stanley Miller a graduate student set
out to see if he mimicked the theoretical primordial Earth, he could produce the 20 amino acids
that are the building block of life. He created the ocean by filling a closed glass container with
water, and coming out of this was a tube that went to a second chamber that mimicked the
primordial earth atmosphere which was methane, ammonia, and hydrogen. As the heated
water vaporized it flowed out of the first chamber and into the second chamber. He passed
electricity through the second chamber to mimic electrical storms or lightning. Between the
first chamber and second he placed a condenser, so when the water vapor rose into it, some of
it would condense into liquid to mimic rain. With this experiment he produced 10 of the 20
biological amino acids. We have yet to find a way to produce all 20 under theoretical primordial
earth conditions.!
Produced!
Glycine, Alanine, Aspartate, Valine, Leucine, Glutamate, Isoleucine, Serine, Proline, Threonine!
Not Produced!
Phenyalanine, Tyrosine, Tryptophan, Histidine, Lysine, Arginine, Cysteine, Methionine,
Asparagine, Glutamine!
H2O!
Water is an extraordinary substance and in order to have life you need it. The earth is not only
the right distance from the sun for water to exist in three phases (ice, vapor, and liquid) but is
also happens to be very plentiful here, it covers three quarters of the planet’s surface and what
is more there are great amounts of it under its surface. Let’s look at some of the properties of
water that it has that allows for life:!
1. Water is solvent meaning it dissolves a great number of substances.!
2. Water is cohesive and adhesive, cohesive because it flows freely, yet adhesive in that can
also adhere to surfaces. Unicellular organisms rely on external water to transport nutrients
and waste while multicellular organisms have internal vessels that use it to do the same.
Because of adhesion and cohesion water can climb up from the roots of a tree to its top by
tension created by water evaporating from its leaves.!
3. Water has a high surface tension meaning plant debris can rest on its surface providing
food and shelter for aquatic life.!
4. Water in its solid phase (ice) is less dense than it is in its liquid phase because when it
freezes it expands meaning it floats on the surface water. If it was not for this life could not
exist on earth because if the ice sank the ponds, lakes, and perhaps even the oceans
would freeze over solid.!
5. Water has a high heat capacity. The specific heat of water is one calorie per gram degree
centigrade which means it takes one calorie to raise the temperature of a gram of it by one
degree centigrade. This keeps the earth relatively cool, and thus life thrives. A lot of the
sunlight’s energy goes into vaporizing it into clouds that would otherwise go into heating
the planet."